Features Automated assembly and fixture planning at Sandia National Laboratories

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center at Sandia National Laboratories supports several ongoing projects oriented towards enabling the creation of more automatic and effective robotic assembly systems, especially for small lot production. Two of these projects are Archimedes, which is an automatic assembly planning system, and Holdfast, which automatically designs optimal farm-closure fixtures. These technologies have application in many automated assembly contexts, whether robotic or not. Discusses the current state and applications of these two technologies. Both are based on use of a 3D CAD model, which currently must be converted to ACIS form for processing. Archimedes reasons about the liaisons between parts, then derives an assembly plan that is geometrically valid. This plan is improved by interaction with the user, who adds "constraints" to guide replanning. Facilities to define and search fora user's "optimal" plan are under development. Given a workpiece shape, task constraints, and a description of a fixture kit, Holdfast finds the optimal fixture that can be made from the kit to hold the workpiece in form-closure.